Hollywood Recession: Visual Effects Studio Behind ‘Dune,’ ‘Oppenheimer’ to Lay Off Hundreds

The VFX house DNEG, which worked on the acclaimed blockbusters Dune and Oppenheimer, will be reportedly laying off hundreds amid its slow recovery from the industry-wide strikes.

The company has reportedly begun a consultation process in the U.K. and Canada, which could lead to a 5 percent cut from its workforce, per Deadline.

“Layoffs are understood to be somewhat concentrated within R&D teams and are a response to the challenged market, which has not eased up since the Hollywood strikes ended and has not improved sufficiently after DNEG brought in a pay offer for staff last year,” noted the outlet.

“In the UK, where sources say the number of layoffs is predicted to be around 100, Bectu boss Philippa Childs said the union is ‘continuing to do everything we can to support our members who are affected by these redundancies,'” it added.

Childs said that it will continue to be a “very worrying time for anyone working at DNEG, compounding what has been a very difficult year for UK film and TV workers.”

“This is a very challenging time for the sector and many businesses are having to make tough decisions,” she said.

DNEG laid off more than 70 people last year at its London office, which then led to it asking employees to take a 25 percent pay cut or else “join a loan scheme” amid the Hollywood strikes.

“They made a number of proposals under the guise of ‘we hope things will improve’ but that evidently hasn’t happened,” one union source told Deadline.